“Currently there are not a lot of daycare options in Downtown Boise and this project seeks to fulfill that need,” a letter explaining Gardner’s request for permits to develop and operate the daycare space reads.

Gardner is asking the city’s approval to use 4,200 square feet — almost half — of the U.S. Bank building’s first floor for the daycare facility. The building is located on the southwest corner of Capitol Boulevard and Main Street. Gardner bought it in 2013 and recently finished a two-building, multi-use project on its west and south sides that includes retail, office, convention, meeting and public transportation space.

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – “We try to make things as safe as possible for children so the parents can be ensured there’s a safe environment there,” said Tom Shanahan, Public Information Officer for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

Most jobs require background checks, but when your job involves the well-being of someone else’s child, that check is especially important.

In Idaho, this background check begins with a finger print.

“With that finger print, what we can do is actually check all the registries both national, state, and local and so we’d look at the Federal Bureau of Investigations national criminal history background check system, the Idaho State Bureau criminal identification, the statewide child abuse registries, state driving records, and then the federal and state sex offender registries,” said Shanahan.

The Step Ahead Learning Center in Twin Falls conducts a reference check in addition to a criminal background check.

“Before we even hire someone, we do do a reference check, we have to do, if they had a background check within the last two years they have to do a name check with the Idaho State Police,” said Rosalinda Bowman, Executive Director of Step Ahead Learning Center.

After one year of being in Canada, most of the 11 Syrian families who are living in Kamloops, B.C., are still struggling to find work and childcare (Brookline, MA).

Kamloops Immigrant Services has been working with most of the refugees to help provide English language classes. Executive director Paul Lagacé has seen the challenges they face trying to get established within the year allocated to them by the federal government.

“If you don’t have a job, it’s very difficult for you to go looking for work if you have no place for your children to be,” he said.

“It has a greater impact on their potential success rate of establishing and settling because they are on a pretty strict timeline.”

BOSTON – A Boston charter school is working with several agencies to investigate an alleged sexual assault on a school bus, but parents are outraged because they say they learned of the incident through a Facebook post and not from the school.

Boston police told FOX25 they were notified of incident November 3. FOX25 learned Renaissance Boston Charter School failed to notify the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the agency which regulates the school and was supposed to be notified within two days of the incident being reported.

Step 1: Pour a small amount of brown paint onto one paper plate. Remove the child’s shoe and sock and paint the bottom of their foot brown. Make sure you don’t you too much paint, a coating on their foot is enough.

Step 2: Assist the child with stepping on the paper to make the footprint. This will make the reindeer’s face. Your child’s toes will be at the top to make the reindeer’s hair. Clean your child’s foot with baby wipes or soap and water.

Step 3: Pour a small amount of black paint on your child’s hands. Have them rub their hands together so that both hand have a light coating of paint. Again, you want to make sure that you don’t use too much paint.

Step 4: Assist your child with placing their painted hands on top/side of their reindeer’s head. This will make the antlers. Clean your child’s hands with baby wipes or soap and water.

At Little Corner SchoolHouse (LCSH), we recognize the needs of each individual child and work hand-in-hand with parents to provide a safe, loving, and learning environment. Our child-centered setting promotes growth in all areas of development – social, emotional, cognitive and physical.

Our developmentally appropriate curriculum builds a child’s self-esteem, as we encourage self-help skills and natural curiosity to explore and experiment. We foster respect and teach our children to appreciate the cultural diversity in our school. We celebrate customs and rituals that link the diverse cultures of our families.

At Little Corner SchoolHouse (LCSH), we understand that the most effective teachers are those who cherish children. Teachers provide the cornerstone of our Little Corner SchoolHouse (LCSH) community, upon which is built a caring environment for our students that reflects a sincere commitment to and respect for children above all.

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — Parents with young children in day care are taking a hit to their wallet as big as those putting young adult children through college.

A recent national report by New America, a think tank in Washington, D.C., found that the average annual cost of full-time, center-based child care — $9,589 per child 4 years and younger — now exceeds the average annual cost of in-state tuition.

The median annual cost of child care at Clark County centers is highest for those with infants: $12,744. For toddlers, the median cost of one year of care is $10,716, and the median cost for preschool is $9,360 per year, according to data provided by Child Care Aware of Washington, a statewide organization that operates a database of licensed child care centers.

Compare that with one year of full-time, resident tuition at Washington State University Vancouver: $9,883.

Pilot program will provide up to 230 new child-care jobs

Alberta’s NDP government is introducing a $25-a-day daycare program at 18 centres in the province, creating up to 1,000 new child spaces and 230 new jobs.

Under the $10-million pilot project announced Tuesday by Premier Rachel Notley, each eligible centre will receive up to $500,000 in operating grants in the first year, with the possibility of receiving two more years of funding.

The government wants daycares to include spaces for the children of shift workers, and children with special needs.

Interested daycares need to apply to be part of the program. Notley said successful applicants will be announced in early 2017. She said the pilot project will be a step towards a province-wide system.

“What we learn from the initial 18 will guide us on how to best develop a new childcare system,” Notley said. “We will be in a position to implement a maximum of $25-a-day child care as the province’s finances permit.”

Notley wants daycares in rural and urban areas, in accessible locations such as hospitals and other public buildings.